Saints of the Day – 14 April – St Tiburtius of Rome (Died 3rd Century) Martyr, Layman, brother of St Valerian; St Maximus of Rome (Died 3rd Century) Martyr, Layman; St Valerian of Trastevere (c177-c229) Martyr, Layman, brother of St Tiburtius and husband of St Cecilia (Died c232) the Martyrs.
The Roman Martyrology reads: “At Rome, on the Appian Way, the birthday of the Holy Martyrs, Tiburtius, Valerian and Maximus, who suffered in the time of the Emperor, Alexander and the Prefect, Almachius. The first two being converted to Christ by the exhortations of the blessed Cecilia and Baptised by Pope St Urban, were beated with rods and decapitated for the True Faith. But Maximus, the Chamberlain of the Prefect, moved by their constancy and encouraged by the vision of an Angel, believed in Christ and was scourged with leaded whips until he expired.”
The three holy Martyrs Tiburtius, Valerian and Maximus, who lived in the 3rd Century in Rome, are remembered by ancient sources since the 5th Century, however, there are two versions which deal with their personality and historical existence – one is linked to the ‘Passio’ of St Cecilia, while the other is reported by the ‘Hieronymian Martyrology’ or the Martyurology of St Jerome.
In the aforementioned Martyrology they are mentioned four times, the first indicates them as buried in the Catacombs of Praetextatus on the Appian Way and remembered on 14 April and this version is the one then passed into the Roman Martyrology, still in use today.
The other versions remembers them as buried in other Cemeteries in Rome and celebrates them on various dates, sometimes confused, like the case of Tiburzio with another namesake. Scholars have not reached an absolute certainty, it seems however, that only St Tiiburtius is celebration on 14 April, while, in theCatacombs of of Callistus, the other two were buried and celebrated on 21 April. It seems that later, it was St Gregory the Great who united them in a single celebration today.
However, according to the ‘passio’ Valerian was St Cecilia’s husband and converted by her, he was Baptised by St Pope Urban I (222-230) and in his turn he converted hid brother, Tiburtius to Christianity. Both were sentenced to death by the Prefect Almachius, who entrusted them to the Adjutant (second-in-command of the Prefect) who, before having the sentence carried out, also converted, thus being condemned and killed a few days later.
Valerian and Tiburtius were martyred and buried in a place called Pagus da Cecilia, four miles from Rome but which, has not been identified. Maximus was placed in a different sarcophagus. Their tombs were restored first by Pope Gregory III (731-741) then by Pope Hadrian I (772-795) and finally by Pope Paschal I (817-824) who transferred their Relics to the Basilica of St Cecilia in Trastevere.
AnaStpaul 